The Nor’easter of April 2012.

What makes a Nor’easter so special to the world of weather?
Is it because of the massive region that is impacted or is it because of the strength of the storm?
Both of these statements are true. Nor’easters are most common in the late fall through early spring. They form when conditions are favorable for their development. Most typically what happens is, an area of Low pressure will form in the southern plains and move eastward. As you can see from our April storm the system started in Eastern Texas. On the morning of April 20 the storm was located near Dallas Texas and had a central pressure of around 1010mb. An important thing to know about the Nor’easter is the pressure will decrease quite rapidly which indicates the winds are getting stronger.

As seen on the map, the morning of the 21st the storm moved into Central Louisiana. The pressure had dropped 3mb which indicated that our storm was strengthening and the winds were getting stronger. By April 22, the storm moved towards the State of Florida and they were alreay dealing with heavy rains and severe weather from this storm. By 5pm on the 22nd the storm was sitting off the East Coast and this is where the fun began.The pressure was estimated to be down to 993mb. This tells us the storm dropped over 10mb in 2 days which is a very good indication that the winds were still getting stronger. The High pressure center to the west of the storm was responsible for bringing cold air from Canada down into the western portion of the storm which caused the heavy snowfall band. The eastern side of this storm had the heavy rain, thunderstorms and very strong winds which lead to onshore flooding and wind damage for some cities along the East coast.